


The Terrible Tea of D

by Enaty (Taliken)



Category: Pet Shop of Horrors
Genre: Caretaking, Illnesses, M/M, Meddling, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:35:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29887410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taliken/pseuds/Enaty
Summary: Can kami be sick? Well, the Count has fallen ill, and he desperately needs some of his infamous tea to cure him. But by accident, a wrong ingredient finds its way into the mixture and D starts hallucinating about Leon. Or is he?
Relationships: Count D/Leon Orcot
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	The Terrible Tea of D

**Author's Note:**

> This is a repost of a story I wrote in 2008 and posted on fanfiction.net back then. Thanks to the pandemic, I’ve been looking through my old files and decided that I would spend a little time and effort to redo the story and archive it on AO3 as well. So this is the (hopefully) more correct and slightly changed version of The Terrible Tea of D, and I hope you’ll enjoy ☺

Whoever had said that all good things come in threes had definitely never, ever had a cold.

“Achoo! Achoo! A-choo!” D almost bent over, keeping one hand on a chest of drawers to avoid stumbling and falling.

Unless, of course, there was an implicit understanding that “all good things come in threes” only referred to good things to begin with. His eyes watering, D straightened and found a handkerchief, keeping his eyes shut while he suffered the indignity of having to _blow his nose._ Then he remained standing, hand still on the drawers, trying to quell the slightly dizzy feeling. It did not do much good.

He sighed and opened his eyes only to immediately find himself looking into T-chan’s equally exasperated and worried face. “Count, please! Stop with the pretense already and get something for your flu!” he pleaded.

“Perhaps you are right, T-chan,” he admitted hesitantly. “It is just – I don’t understand – I’ve never been ill before…”

His voice trailed off, thoroughly confused. “There’s a first time for everything,” T-chan snorted. “And now you are. So get to bed, I’ll bring you some tea.”

He watched the Count disappear behind the curtains leading to the inner rooms, relieved that at last he seemed to listen to him. The last few days had been a constant ordeal to get him to bed before what had started as a simple cold turned into something much worse. Mulish as the Count was, he had at first not even acknowledged that there was something wrong with him.

T-chan sighed and set out to prepare some herbal tea for his master while Pon-chan chattered away beside him. “Do you think he’ll be all right soon?”

T-chan sighed again, shrugging and refraining from making guesses. It was true, the Count had never been ill before. Not that any of the pets in the shop could remember, that meant. And since he had been so insistent that he wasn’t ill, they had had some pretty bad days. He constantly tripped over something or started to sneeze when he was preparing food for them or had dizzy spells while he was treating a pet. In short, it had been a horrible week trying to prevent him from killing himself by accident. They still weren’t sure how they had managed some of the more critical situations, but they didn’t think too much about it. The important thing was, they were still alive. All of them.

“I hope so,” he finally said when she wouldn’t stop asking, and set up a kettle. Then he heard the bell announcing a visitor and swore. “Darn, we forgot to lock the shop! Pon-chan, keep the Count in the back, I’ll scare them off.”

Storming out, T-chan missed Pon-chan’s confused expression. How was she supposed to keep the Count from the customer? Surely he’d already heard the bell and was on his way. He’d never let his sickness get in the way of business, as they’d painfully learned during the last week.

Sighing, she hopped off in search of the Count, hoping that perhaps they were lucky and he hadn’t noticed the customer to begin with.

* * *

The door closed behind him and D conquered the distance remaining between door and bed to sink down on the mattress with more relief than he ever would’ve admitted to of his own free will. Lying back, he closed his eyes and was glad that in this position, the spinning sensation in his head stopped. It was good to lie down. No, great.

Turning his head to the side, he sighed and let himself sink deeper into the softness below him. Granted, he wasn’t feeling all that well. Still, he could have done without the pets’ open concern. It was bad enough that with him nursing a cold, they did not see any reason any more to conceal their feelings. And he knew that the worry was not solely due to his cold, even if they never said as much.

But he had promised himself that he wasn’t going to think about that. Instead he put an arm over his aching eyes. Even the dim light in the shop hurt these days. Perhaps he really needed a break. Perhaps he had really worked far too much lately. But what was he supposed to do? He needed the work. It kept him too busy to have a mind for other thoughts…

And again his thoughts were straying back to the one topic he had no desire to think about. D turned his head to the other side, determinedly keeping his eyes shut. He needed rest. He needed to sleep. He needed…

Was that the bell?

He sat up, suddenly alert, and his head immediately swam. Groaning, he steadied himself with a hand on his bedpost. When he could see again, he focused on the room in the front, but felt nothing. Still, he had to check. If there was a customer, he would have to see to them, ill or not.

Standing up, it took him another long moment until he stopped swaying enough to make his way to the door. Carefully he made his way through the dimly lit corridors, trying not to trip over something like he had done so enthusiastically the last few days. Sometimes he even had to use the wall to keep himself upright. At a crossing, he stopped. Usually, he would use the right corridor. It was much faster, but was also near pitch-black. Perhaps, in his current state, only not to worry the pets, he should take the longer, better lit way. And so he did, missing Pon-chan only by a few seconds, who had taken his usual route.

Blissfully unaware of this, D found the kettle boiling upon his arrival in the kitchen, with T-chan nowhere in sight. Had he not been so exhausted simply by walking here, he would have called for him to read him the riot act. What if the kettle set the shop on fire by accident?

He peered into the front room, but could see no one there. Perhaps his ears had played a trick on him. But since he was here now, he could as well prepare the tea himself. There was this special recipe, if he recalled correctly, that his grandfather had used to cure ill pets. If it worked for the pets, why not for him?

Like walking on egg-shells, D went over and opened the cupboard containing the required herbs. Then, without warning, his vision blurred again. Quickly D closed his eyes, trying to stay on his feet, and grasped the small bottle without looking. Bottle in hand, the other clenched around the door frame, he waited until the dizzy spell had passed. Only then did he walk back to the kettle to stir the various herbs into the hot water, his head still a little fuzzy.

Still, he managed to prepare the tea and could not help the small jolt of satisfaction. He might be in a bad state, but it was not that bad. Not the pneumonia the pets had all been predicting for him if he did not stop working so hard.

Then he heard the front door open and the totetsu enter. His steps were unmistakeable, only his claws made that special scratching sound on the carpets of the shop.

* * *

T-chan was grinning so broadly he was baring his sharp teeth. He just loved to scare humans, and this one had been particularly entertaining. Stepping into the front room, he stopped dead in his tracks, the grin fading as if it had never been there. “What are you doing here?” he nearly yelled at the Count, waiting for him with his arms crossed and looking, for all means and purposes, like walking death. “You’re ill! I told Pon-chan to keep you in bed!”

“Where is the customer?” the Count inquired icily.

T-chan shrank back. “There was no customer,” he stuttered uneasily, but the Count knew when he was being lied to.

“I do not approve of you scaring my customers away.” His voice was dangerously quiet. T-chan shrank even more.

“I’m sorry. But you’re so ill and I – we – you shouldn’t be disturbed by those humans!”

D sent him another freezing glance, but then his face softened. His pets were worried. Although he didn’t like it, he also couldn’t hold it against them. “I have prepared tea myself. Please fetch me a cup,” he ordered and sat down. T-chan obeyed immediately, glad to escape.

D sighed when he disappeared behind the curtain and put his head into his hands. One moment more and he would have had another dizzy spell.

Once T-chan had given him the cup, he sent him to his bedroom with the pot. He would drink one cup in the front room, just one cup. Hopefully he would then be able to stand without having another dizzy spell. Hopefully, one good night’s sleep in combination with the tea would bring him some relief.

He sipped slowly, savouring the taste. Medicinal tea was not supposed to taste good, but either his nose was too blocked to fully register all of the smells or this tea was an exception to the rule. How strange. He distinctly remembered the pets trying to escape having to drink it.

D balked, his eyes going wide as he stared at the cup in his hand.

Then, his hand slightly shaking, he took another sip and swirled it around in his mouth, trying to figure out what the taste reminded him of. This particular tea, even if it didn’t taste bad, was not, could not taste _sweet._ Not considering what herbs went into it.

Had he by accident put in a wrong herb?

He slowly sat the cup down and tried to remember what the little bottle had contained. He knew exactly what it should have contained. Why hadn’t he checked if it was the right one? Which ones stood beside this and what would they do in this special mixture?

He was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice the door opening and someone approaching. Gasping with shock, he finally identified the ingredient. Oh no! How could he have been so careless? He had to leave for his bedroom immediately before something bad happened -

A heavy hand fell on his shoulder. “D, you bastard! I knew I’d find you!” a familiar voice said. Letting out a shrill shriek, D shot up and whirled around to face the one he hadn’t wanted to see ever again.

“Detective!” he gasped, clenching the chair’s back. “This really is a most unfortunate time to visit me!”

Blue eyes widened, brows drew together. “Are you serious – for fuck’s sake, I shoulda known! That’s just like you!” Leon spat. “I travel around the whole world in search of you and all you’ve got to tell me is that I chose a bad time to visit? You know what? Fuck you!”

The room started to blur in front of D’s eyes. He held onto the chair harder. “I did not mean to sound harsh, Detective. It is just…“

His voice trailed off as his eyes widened. This was Tokyo. Surely Leon hadn’t been able to trace him to here. But that meant…

The tea. These leaves. They induced hallucinations.

And that was his last clear thought before everything went fuzzy and funny.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no clue who is around in this fandom these days, but if someone from way back when wants to say hello, that’d make me happy, and new acquaintances also will ☺ Comments will make me happy, but please don’t forget that I’m not rewriting the story completely, just polishing it a little.


End file.
